UKs wind farm turning into a tourist spot

ScottishPower Renewables has started a multi million-pound project to transform the UK’s largest on-shore wind farm into a tourist destination.

The UK’s first of its own kind center, the Whitelee Wind Farm is located 12 miles south from Glasgow. The 300 million-pound wind farm will demonstrate details about its construction, in the form of an exhibition and it will have an education center, where the trained staff will teach tourists about renewable energy, and how a wind farm works.

On Friday, the State Secretary of Scotland, Des Browne MP along with developers from ScottishPower Renewables attended the turf-cutting ceremony, in order to mark the beginning of the construction.

Under this programme, the Whitelee Forest and Eaglesham Moor area will be opened for the public access. During this plan, 82Km long roads and tracks have been built to construct 140 wind turbines, out of which 55 have already been built. Once all the 140 turbines will start working, they will generate 322MW energy, which is sufficient for 180,000 homes. The farm will be complete by summer, 2009. The UK’s largest wind farm can grow even further, if the ScottishPower‘s application for extra 36 turbines will be approved. Then the farm will create total energy of 452MW.

After completion, the 25.5km square habitat management area will be opened for ramblers and cyclists, so that they can enjoy wildlife. Regulation director of ScottishPower Renewables, Andrew Jamieson said that they want to encourage people to learn about renewable energy and see how a wind farm works. They are also planning to start environment-friendly buses for the visitors.